How the special bond with your mother is formed
"On quantum entanglement, breastfeeding, and the mystery of life"
That motherhood is a special experience is a fact for many. However, how the special bond between a mother and her child comes about is still mysterious to many leading scientists. Quantum biology is a relatively new field that can shed light on this. The research area deals with quantum mechanics to unravel biological phenomena and issues. In this way, this branch of science hopes to learn more about the origin of life and hopefully to fathom mysteries such as the secret of love and the bond between mother and child.
Quantum mechanics is a physical theory that describes the behavior of and the effect of forces on the smallest particles. All biological organisms obey the laws of quantum mechanics, and we have been able to explain many biological phenomena since the development of quantum mechanics. The mysterious thing about it is that this theory often goes against our intuition. For example, particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously, and particles can be entangled with each other in such a way that they can communicate instantaneously over great distances.
However, the theory does fit our physical descriptions of the world around us and has already led to many insights. For example, quantum mechanical processes appear to underlie the mystery of the 'spark of love' and the communication between and within living cells. It has already been discovered through quantum mechanics that living cells emit a constant light via biophotons, and photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert light into life, is now generally considered a quantum phenomenon.
Finally, quantum entanglement appears to be at the basis of the transformation that mother and child undergo during pregnancy, where fetal cells become forever entangled with the mother's body, where the eternal bond between mother and child is forged. A bond that is strengthened by the ingenious communication processes of breastfeeding and that is not only a connection between the mother and her baby but also forever connects the father and any younger siblings.
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Pregnancy is one of the most special periods in a woman's life. From the moment you know you're going to be a mother, you feel different as a woman. A baby is growing in your belly, and even though it's still so small, all sorts of physical and mental changes are taking place immediately to prepare you for what's to come. Of course, you only want the best for your baby and do everything to stay healthy. Organic food, natural pregnancy vitamins, enough rest, and little stress are important points of attention. The bond between you is sealed from day one and only gets stronger. New scientific fields, such as quantum biology, are providing us with increasingly interesting insights into this deep connection between mother and child. Did you know, for example, that the physical bond between mother and child remains forever, even after birth, through quantum entanglement?
Broadly speaking, most women know what happens during pregnancy. The body visibly changes, the baby goes through different stages of development, and your sense of responsibility grows as you slowly prepare for childbirth. Beyond these easily observable changes, a lot more is happening in your body that you are probably unaware of. The processes that regulate communication between mother and child and create their interconnectedness are fascinating and truly ingeniously constructed. We already suspected that the bond between mother and child runs deep, but now, thanks to experiments conducted in quantum biology, we also know more and more about how this 'entanglement' between mother and child arises and works.
The mystery of quantum mechanics
To explain this properly, it's important to first understand a bit more about quantum biology. It's a relatively new field that assumes and investigates how quantum mechanical processes underpin life on Earth. A convergence of quantum mechanics and biology, in other words. For years, biologists were cautious about applying quantum mechanics to their field. After all, quantum mechanics is still a mysterious and incomprehensible physical theory for describing reality; even Nobel laureates admit that even the smartest minds in the world still don't fully understand it. Reassuringly: you are not the only one who has not yet fully mastered the quantum principles. What exactly is quantum mechanics, and what is so mysterious about it?
Quantum mechanics is a physical theory that describes the behaviors of and the effects of forces on the smallest particles. All biological organisms obey the laws of quantum mechanics, and we have been able to explain many biological phenomena and expand our physical knowledge since the development of quantum mechanics. Factually, it is the best model we currently have to describe the world around us. Although the results of experiments are consistent with our current physical understanding of the world, they often go against our intuition. For example, according to quantum theory, particles behave like a kind of wave or cloud and are not simply in one place, but can be in two or more places at once, strangely enough, only until a measurement or observation of the particle takes place. Only then is the particle, as it were, forced by its observation, to choose one clear option. Until a measurement takes place, particles are in a so-called 'superposition': they are in two or more states at the same time, or in other words, their state is still undetermined. Something like this could not previously be explained with classical physical models, but it can be explained with quantum mechanics, although it naturally remains a bizarre and difficult-to-grasp concept for most people.
'Entanglement' at a quantum level
Not only can particles be in two places at once in quantum mechanics, but two particles can also be 'entangled' with each other. This quantum phenomenon means that two particles are inextricably linked and appear to be able to communicate instantaneously, regardless of the distance. What is so bizarre is that observing or measuring one particle has direct consequences for the entangled particle. When one particle is measured and turns out to be in state A, the other particle immediately appears to be in the opposite state B. Scientists are still unsure whether this is because they can communicate faster than light, or because they acquire knowledge of each other's state in another way, for example, through hidden or encrypted information in the particle itself that is still unknown to us. The fact is that quantum entanglement exists and that the quantum states of entangled particles are inextricably and directly linked, regardless of the distance between the particles. Even Einstein couldn't make heads or tails of this, describing it as 'spooky action at a distance'.
The strange thing is that these quantum experiments and measurements only yield results at an atomic or subatomic level; in our everyday lives and with our human eyes, we don't see these kinds of quantum principles. As objects get larger and heavier, quantum mechanics seems to reach its limits; a fact that we still can't fully grasp. However, recently more and more research is also taking place at the interface of the small quantum world and the classical world of large objects; a research area referred to as quantum biology. Although we are far from fully understanding or applying quantum mechanics, the possibilities do capture our imagination, and scientists hope that quantum mechanical principles within biology could explain all sorts of mysteries. Let's look at what interesting results research has already led to in understanding love, the origin of life, and fathoming the bond between mother and child.
The quantum spark that ignites
Although scientists have shown that quantum entanglement is real and works, it remains a bizarre idea that is difficult to grasp. It is almost as mysterious as love, because the ways of love are still inscrutable to us, and even in science, we don't get much further. More and more scientists now suspect there is a connection between the two: could the mystery of quantum mechanics unravel the mystery of love? There are indications. The experience of falling in love seems eerily similar to the entanglement of particles according to quantum principles. When two particles become entangled, they share a common status from that moment on and are no longer separate entities but exist as one. Becoming entangled transforms the two individual particles into a forever connected unit. Similarly, quantum entanglement seems to occur when two people fall in love. When the gazes of two people meet, even over a great distance, with a room full of people in between, the 'spark' can suddenly ignite, in the same way that electrons and protons can become entangled over great distances.
An explosion of life
And even when falling in love leads to a relationship and ultimately the fertilization of a female egg, quantum principles can 'shed light' on the mystery of the origin of life. Literally, because everything involving light fundamentally falls into the quantum domain. For example, photosynthesis is now generally considered a biological quantum process, and it has also been discovered that living cells emit coherent light, consisting of a pulsating stream of biophotons. The release of photons in living organisms is called 'bioluminescence' and appears to be involved in communication within cells concerning cell growth, cell division, and cell differentiation.
A research team from Northwestern University in Illinois was able to film the moment of human fertilization and observed a veritable flash of light at the crucial moment. This flash of light, which is at the basis of the origin of life, is reminiscent of the birth of stars, where such a flash of light is also observable. What is also interesting is that the flash of light from some female egg cells is brighter, which is a direct indication that these egg cells are better able to develop into healthy embryos, as demonstrated by the team.
The researchers also discovered that the flash of light consists of billions of zinc atoms. They were able to trace that an egg cell contains about 8000 zinc compartments, each with about a million zinc atoms, all ready to be fired at the moment of fertilization. The zinc released by the egg cell plays an important role in the 'consideration' an egg cell makes to grow into an embryo. The more zinc is released, the more viable the egg cell. What exact role zinc plays in the beginning of life is still a mystery being researched. However, the team did discover that the 'fertilization fireworks' of zinc can be observed for about two hours after fertilization. Scientists also suspect that there is quantum entanglement between egg cell and sperm cell, where fertilization can only occur when precisely the right genetic materials become entangled, although research into this is still in its early stages.
Quantum principles and the building blocks of life
Although the world of biology and that of quantum mechanics coexisted for a long time, the two fields are increasingly interested in each other. It is becoming more and more plausible that quantum mechanical effects play a central role in the origin and maintenance of living organisms. For example, it has already been discovered that enzymes, the 'workhorses' of life, use a trick we call 'quantum tunneling'. It is the task of enzymes to accelerate chemical processes in our cells, such that processes that would otherwise take thousands of years now take place in living cells in a few seconds. For a long time, it was a mystery how enzymes are able to accelerate chemical reactions by more than a trillion times. In recent decades, however, experiments have shown that enzymes encourage electrons and protons to disappear at one position in a biomolecule, only to then appear at another position – to actually 'disapparate' and 'appear', for the Harry Potter connoisseurs among us. Quantum tunneling is therefore a kind of teleportation that explains how enzymes achieve these process accelerations. It is, to say the least, a strange idea that countless quantum teleportations take place every second in all our cells!
Mother and fetus remain connected
Once fertilization is complete and the embryo develops further, we return to the bond between mother and child, one of the most powerful love bonds that exist. This entanglement between mother and child is not only on an emotional level, as quantum experiments and biological studies have shown. The bond also exists on many deeper, physical and even atomic levels and continues to exist after birth. We now know that not only does the mother provide nutrients, building blocks and shelter to the fetus during pregnancy, but also that the cells of the fetus make their way through the placenta via the bloodstream through the mother's body, even through the blood-brain barrier. As a result, the baby's DNA becomes a permanent part of the mother's body. These cells with the fetus's DNA remain part of the mother's body for decades, perhaps for life, and are found throughout the mother's body, from blood to bone marrow. This phenomenon of carrying cells from another person is known as 'microchimerism'.
Trouble in the womb
At first, this sounds wonderful: a bond that is demonstrable even at the cellular level and lasts a lifetime. However, the entire formation of this connection can also be seen in a less rosy light. What happens in the womb during pregnancy is nothing less than a small war that takes place between the mother's cells and those of the fetus. Although it doesn't fit our loving cultural ideas about motherhood, a pregnancy is actually a biological struggle between mother and baby, where the fetal cells 'invade' the mother's body, and the mother then fights back to prevent her baby from taking more than she can handle. For example, the uterine lining forms a thick, fortress-like facade on the inside of the uterus and is, as it were, the front line where the battle between the mother cells and the invading foreign cells takes place.
Research also indicates that the uterus is not so much an ideal living environment for an embryo to grow, but that the organ is primarily optimized to protect the mother against the invasion that a baby actually represents in a mother's body. To investigate this theory, scientists implanted fetal cells from a baby mouse in other places in the mother mouse's body. Instead of the fetal cells slowly dying off, as the researchers expected, the fetal cells went wild and appeared to feast on all the nutrients that came their way in the mother mouse's body. It is therefore not without reason that the uterine wall serves not only as a breeding ground, but primarily as a defensive wall against invading fetal cells. As described above, the fetal cells are so invasive that colonies of them continue to wander around the mother's body for life. A pregnancy therefore transforms a woman into a veritable 'genetic chimera'! This may explain why, after a pregnancy, you never feel like your old self again…
Your child helps you stay healthy
The sacrifice a mother makes is thus even greater than we might have thought. Yet the sacrifice is not in vain; it may require a great effort, but once the battle at the cellular level is fought, the bond between mother and child is invaluable. The mother also gets something back. Based on research, it appears that the fetal cells that remain in the mother's body help her to heal when she is sick or injured. A link has even been found between the number of fetal cells, the prevention of a number of conditions, and a longer life. And to make it all even more complex: the fetal cells contain not only the baby's DNA, but also the father's, and all this genetic information becomes part of younger siblings in subsequent pregnancies via the mother's body. Not only mother and child, but also father and any siblings are therefore genetically entangled with each other for life in an almost universal interconnectedness.
Breastfeeding as medicine
In other areas as well, an ingenious exchange of information takes place between mother and child. A beautiful example of such an exchange is breastfeeding. Although there are many alternatives to breastfeeding today, breast milk remains the best for your baby. Its composition changes based on your child's needs, and its complexity cannot be matched by any baby formula. But did you also know that breastfeeding, in addition to providing exactly the right nutrients, also plays a role as a means of communication between the baby's immune system and the mother's immune system? An almost incredible exchange of information takes place between breasts and baby. During feeding, a vacuum is created, and in that vacuum, a little of the baby's saliva is sucked into the mother's nipple. Receptors in the mammary glands then read signals, and based on this, the composition of the breast milk is adjusted. For example, if the mammary glands detect pathogens, the mother's body immediately produces antibodies. These then enter the baby's body via the breast milk, where they can fight an infection.
Conclusion
The entanglement between mother and child is thus present even at a quantum level, and while there is likely much more to discover about this connection, we can at least say that this bond has beautiful, mysterious, irreversible, and special consequences for both mother and child. How wonderful is the idea that from pregnancy, a cellular bond grows between you, your baby, your partner, and your future children for the rest of your lives? And even though pregnancy can be seen as a biological battle between your cells and those of your child, it is simultaneously a remarkable idea that your body is capable of absorbing and developing an entirely new being within itself. Perhaps it is even logical that such an event is accompanied by a (cellular) struggle and that it changes you as a woman for the rest of your life: such an extraordinary creation as bringing new life into being cannot, of course, occur without some wear and tear. Moreover, the invasion also proved to have an important function. The fetal cells that remain in the mother's body help her stay healthy and also contribute to the creation of that universal connection between mother and child. A connection that is only strengthened by breastfeeding, due to the ingenious communication and connection that can arise between a mother and her baby through it. We all already knew that motherhood is something special, but the fact that quantum entanglement is even involved in creating a lifelong maternal bond is an interesting fact that beautifully highlights how incredibly special the experience of motherhood is.
Babies and their quantum intuition
Perhaps we are simply too old to understand quantum mechanics. Experiments have shown that babies are likely the only living people in the world who intuitively understand the principles of quantum mechanics. The evidence researchers provide for this is the peek-a-boo game. When you play this game with children up to about 3 months old, covering your face with your hands does not elicit a reaction from them. Your baby simply looks around and assumes you have left the room; after all, you are no longer there, which means that, like an electron, you can be anywhere, inside or outside the room. Other experiments also show that babies up to 3 months old do not yet have ‘object permanence’ and that they only slowly lose their sense of quantum mechanical principles from the age of about 3 months, only to never fully understand it again, just like the rest of us.
